1. FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to electrical cable and is particularly directed to a cable reel bearer for supporting one or more reels of cable together with a dolly for transporting the bearer and cable reels carried thereby.
2. PRIOR ART
In wiring residential and commercial buildings, motion picture sets and the like, it is often necessary for an electrician to employ several different colors, sizes or types of cable or to run several lines using independent reels of a common type of cable. In these instances, the electrician must carry several reels of cable, which may each weigh ten to twenty pounds, and be able to run each cable line to a desired location without confusion or interference with the other cable lines. Obviously, considerable effort is required to move these cable reels from room to room and to maneuver the reels to permit feeding the cables to desired locations within a room without tangling with other cables. Numerous devices have been proposed heretofore to overcome these problems. However, none of the prior art cable reel bearers have been entirely satisfactory.
A search in the U.S. Pat. Office has revealed the following prior art:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. INVENTOR ISSUE DATE ______________________________________ 4,457,527 A. J. Lowery Jul. 3, 1984 4,564,152 A. A. Herriage Jan. 14, 1986 4,579,358 B. Byfield, Jr. Apr. 1, 1986 4,611,645 D. H. Whisnant Sep. 16, 1986 ______________________________________
The patents to Lowery and Heritage each disclose cable reel bearers which are relatively bulky and complex and, hence, would be relatively expensive to produce and complicated to use. The patents to Byfield and Whisnant teach cable reel bearers which are relatively simple in construction. However, all of the prior art cable bearers are relatively cumbersome to rotate so as to facilitate running cables to different sides of a room without tangling with other cables. Furthermore, Byfield and Whisnant merely provide studs for mounting the cable reels. Consequently, when cable is drawn off of the reels, the reels tend to continue to rotate, after the desired length of cable has been drawn off, allowing additional cable to unreel onto the floor and creating additional work for the electrician. Lowery and Herriage each provide brake means for preventing such spillage, however, their brake means are complicated to use and complex to produce.